Weekend Roundup: Bully Ray Attending NXT Halloween Havoc 2024, Anthony Henry Triceps Injury Update, Ricky Starks, TNA Bound For Glory 2024, Live TNA Impact Show for Jan. 2025, Session Moth Martina Suffered Head Injury, Tam Nakano, Indies

Indie / Misc

Steve C.

Oct 27, 2024

WWE

WWE reportedly has sold and distributed around 4,618 tickets for Sunday’s NXT Halloween Havoc 2024 event at the Giant Center in Hershey, PA as of Saturday, according to WrestleTix.
In a recent episode of the Busted Open Radio podcast, WWE Hall of Famer and co-host Bully Ray stated that he will be attending WWE’s NXT Halloween Havoc 2024 event tonight and he believes he will be participating in the event’s Kickoff show and event itself. Ray stated “I decided to take Shawn Michaels up on his offer. When Mr. WrestleMania and the guy who’s running the show at NXT decides to invite you to Halloween Havoc, you accept so, I am on my way to Halloween Havoc. Dave LaGreca is at Halloween Havoc and we are very excited for the show tonight. I believe myself and Dave will be representing Busted Open on the Halloween Havoc pre-show and the actual PLE. So that’s pretty exciting news for us today and for Busted Open.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
As noted before, this past Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Brooklyn, New York featured The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) defeating The Bloodline (Tama Tonga & Tonga Loa) to become the new WWE Tag Team Champions. In a recent episode of the SmackDown LowDown show on Peacock, MCMG gave their thoughts about their championship victory. Sabin stated “I think it’s still sinking in. You know, I’m almost kind of speechless. I don’t know what to say. It’s kind of unheard of to be on the fast track to success like this in the WWE, but this is exactly what we came here to do. We came here to prove that we’re one of the greatest tag teams of all time, and there’s only one place you can do that, and that’s right here in WWE.” Shelly responded stating “Quite frankly, it doesn’t matter what we did last week, it doesn’t matter what we did an hour ago. What matters right now is that we’re champions, and we have to hold on to these. so the hard work’s just beginning, but you didn’t see nothing yet. We’re the greatest of all time for a reason. We’re going to prove it to the WWE Universe.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
In a recent episode of The Lyons Den podcast, NXT talent and host Nikkita Lyons gave her thoughts about her recovery from her knee injuries over the past couple of years and her recent return from her second knee injury. Lyons stated “Back to recovery, it’s been a long road. Especially the two knees. Two-knee Nikkita. I’m about to be rocking two knee braces just like Stone Cold Steve Austin. Shout out to you Stone Cold. Love ya Austin 3:16. Anyway, huge inspiration of mine but, going into surgery, honestly the second time, I was like, alright, let’s do this sh*t, right? Because I had done it already and I’ve had the same surgeon and I knew he was gonna do exactly what he needed to perfectly and grateful for that. But, this time was different for me. The first surgery I went through on my other leg was a lot different than this time. The first time, I felt lost, I felt confused, I felt a myriad of things that may not even have a word to describe them. But this time, I felt nothing but pure determination. Pure let me kick my own ass because it’s that time. I’m being presented with certain opportunities and my body was failing me at the time. But it’s not — I think I heard John Cena say this actually in an interview: ‘It’s not the fact that you failed. It’s how you deal with the failure.’ I don’t know if that’s word-for-word but it was something along those lines. How do you handle (it) when you are at rock bottom? What do you do? Do you stay there? Like yeah, I’ve fallen down but I never just laid there. So, I told myself that and I knew there was gonna be days when I didn’t want to do anything because, honestly, depression, you know? Depression’s a real thing and a lot of people go through it. But, what does depression mean? Or when you think of that word depression, depress; deep rest. You need deep rest. Every day for my rehabilitation in the very beginning, I could not put my leg down. Especially the first time. So I had my meniscus and my right knee repaired. Lateral and medial. I think that’s what it’s called (she laughed), and then my ACL, had a partial MCL so like, almost everything in this knee was just reconstructed. So, that recovery took 10 months. This recovery took eight months and this side, on my left knee, thankfully, I only had to do the ACL so, it’s only been eight months since my surgery and again, this is pre-taped so this is probably dropping nine or 10 months after. But regardless, this one took 10. So, it felt like a little win.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
In a recent interview with TV Insider, NXT talent Cora Jade gave her thoughts about how herself and Cora Jade have been pushing CM Punk to get him to persuade AJ Lee to come back to the ring in WWE. Jade stated “I don’t know. I hope so. I’m working on it. Me and Roxy are always badgering him about it. I know he is doing it to her as well, so we’ll see. If it happens, you’ll have to thank me.”
Sports Illustrated recently released their Top 20 Greatest WWE Wrestlers of All-Time list featuring Stone Cold Steve Austin topping their list. The Top 10 in order were Austin, Hulk Hogan, The Rock, John Cena. Roman Reigns, The Undertaker, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, and Bruno Sammartino. Becky Lynch was the only women’s wrestler to make their list at the #20 spot.
WWE recently released three new videos to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was an I Quit match of Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Ken Shamrock. The second new video was a “Best WrestleMania main events marathon.” The third new video was a full episode of the Steve Austin Broken Skull Sessions podcast featuring Goldberg.
In a recent interview with Headlock, Bo Dallas gave his thoughts about his Uncle Howdy character being the most creative role he has had in his wrestling career. Dallas stated “Oh, for sure. This has always been the stuff that I’ve liked, and my brother. We’ve always been intrigued with the different, the odd, eerie parts of the world, scary stuff. I never got the opportunity to do that. We kind of both, go went down different lanes, and now I got this chance. I always saw what Windham was doing, and that’s the stuff that both of us like but i was not in that. I didn’t have the opportunity to do that. Now that I do, like I said, I feel like a little kid playing and I still feel like I have my brother with me and it’s unbelievable.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Natalya revealed that she had underwent eye surgery to fix her issues with astigmatism during her time away from WWE earlier this year. Natayla stated “I don’t think even really anybody in WWE knew about it because I kept it pretty secretive. I was born with astigmatism… I was legally blind in my left eye.” Natalya also gave her thoughts about some of the obstacles she faced in the past that prevented her from getting eye surgery for it. Natalya stated “They didn’t have the technology to fix it. (I) Didn’t qualify for LASIK because of how my eye was shaped. At that time, the procedure that they had for (a) lens implant, because of the shape of my eye, I didn’t qualify for it.” Natalya also gave her thoughts about how she finally made the decision to get eye surgery during her recent time away from WWE. Natalya stated “I had a little time off this summer in between my contract re-signing. I was like, if I had this time off, I’m going to ask WWE if I can get this fixed because I went and found an eye doctor. Newsom Eye in Tampa. They had the technology that they didn’t have before.“
As noted before, WWE’s SmackDown show is currently expected to expand into becoming a three-hour weekly show on USA Network starting in January of 2025. WWE’s RAW show is also currently expected to return to its three-hour format when the show moves to Netflix. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE officials still have yet to make an official decision regarding the runtime formats for both their RAW and SmackDown shows in January of 2025. Meltzer reported that WWE officials are still in talks regarding the length for both shows. In regards to RAW, Meltzer reported that as of over one month ago, WWE officials were of the belief that they did not need to have a set time for their weekly RAW shows on Netflix and would be flexible instead depending on the needs for that week’s show. In regards to SmackDown, Meltzer reported that SmackDown moving to a weekly three-hour format is entirely dependent on if they were to receive a new deal from USA Network to make that happen.
WWE’s Bad Blood 2024 event earlier this month in Atlanta, Georgia reportedly generated around 15,100 cable television pay-per-view buys based on updated late buys purchases, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Meltzer reported that Bad Blood 2024’s buys are up 71.1% compared to this past August’s Bash In Berlin event.
WWE reportedly drew an attendance of 10,111 for their Oct. 18th SmackDown show in Colombia, SC and 12,657 for their Oct. 21st RAW show in Philadelphia, PA, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE reportedly has sold around 15,402 tickets for their Nov. 30th Survivor Series WarGames 2024 event in Vancouver, Canada as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
As noted before, the October 18th WWE SmackDown show drew 1,378,000 viewers and a 0.42 rating. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that SmackDown’s seventh quarter hour overall viewership of 1,260,000 and key demographic viewership of 494,000 was the lowest for a SmackDown show in its regular time slot since the MyNetwork TV era of SmackDown’s history.

AEW & ROH

As noted before, Anthony Henry has been out of action for AEW, Ring of Honor, and the indies since earlier this month due to a torn triceps injury and surgery. Henry provided an update earlier today on Twitter stating that he is currently expecting to be medically cleared for an in-ring return in about six weeks. Henry stated “Apparently, I am an anomaly. Only about two weeks post-op, and I am out of the immobilizer and already moving freely with nearly full ROM. Fingers crossed BUT, I think I can be cleared in another 6 weeks. #workhorsemen“
Saturday’s AEW Collision show featured Penelope Ford defeating Robyn Renegade in a singles match. This was Ford’s first match in AEW since the October 17, 2022 episode of AEW Dark: Elevation. This was also Ford’s first victory since the same show in 2022.
This past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in Salt Lake City, Utah featured a promo segment involving Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, and MJF. This segment was notable for MJF being seen at his home receiving a massage from a female masseuse named Natalia. Twitter user AEW Enhancement Talent reported that this woman is Instagram user natalial.t. This person confirmed on Instagram that she was the masseuse for MJF’s segment on the show. She stated “So proud of being part of this. We all know who’s the best, Max is the goat — #aewdynamite #aew #aewwrestling this video played live in front of a packed arena in Salt Lake City Utah.“
MMA Payout’s Jason Cruz reported that AEW had an attendance of 7,097 with the breakdown being 6,373 paid tickets and 724 comp tickets. AEW reportedly drew a live gate of $456,513.85 and paid a total of $34,023.98 in fees back to the state of Washington based on the state’s Department of Licensing records.
This past Friday’s News Now show for CBS 2 Iowa featured Kyle Feltcher making an appearance and doing some guest weather reporting. This appearance was notable for being the first time Fletcher showed off his newly shaved head look on television following his promo segment at this past AEW Dynamite’s show where he shaved part of his head as part of his promo saying that he is not just another Will Ospreay.
VIP Vodka Seltzer announced that they have recently partnered with Chris Jericho for the release of a new limited edition “Grape is Jericho” flavor of their Vodka Seltzer alcoholic beverage brand.
In a recent interview with Youngstown Studio, Orange Cassidy gave his thoughts about his past feuds with Jon Moxley in AEW and Moxley pushing him into another feud over his group’s recent attack on Chuck Taylor. Cassidy stated “I’ve had my run-ins with Jon Moxley twice, and that’s one times too many. Every time I got a chance to step into the ring with Jon Moxley, after that match, it changed me forever. I just wasn’t the same person. I didn’t want to have to deal with that again because not only did it change me, but it also affected the people around me, and it affected my friends. He’s made it very clear that he wants me to go through that again. I think at this upcoming Wednesday, this Dynamite, I will make it very clear what my intentions are moving forward because it’s something I didn’t want to have to deal with, but I feel that now I need to insert myself into the situation.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
In a recent interview with First We Feast’s Truth or Dab: Rapid Fire show, Mercedes Mone gave her thought about who are on her Mount Rushmore of opponents in her wrestling career. Mone stated “That’s hard for me because I’ve wrestled some of the best in the world. Number one I think is easily Bayley. We’ve made so many historic moments and matches together. Number two might have to be Charlotte Flair. She has given me my greatest matches, my worst matches, all in between. Three, I might have to go with Willow Nightingale. Last but not least, I might have to choose Bianca [Belair] because of our history-making moment at WrestleMania 37, when we main-evented, something that I’m gonna remember for the rest of my life.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
In a recent interview with the Eyes Up Here with Francine podcast, RJ City gave his thoughts about the reason why AEW’s Meal And A Match digital series went on a break. City stated “Renee and I had come up with the idea and pitched it for a while. It taks a while to make things happen. We did that one basically as a pilot to make a demo and to show it to people to get greenlit. We filmed all day with Eddie Kingston. We ate a bunch of food. We didn’t know what we were going to do with it. They liked it so much, they said, ‘Let’s put it out at the first episode.’ So it says, ‘New series. Episode one.’ Maybe we shouldn’t have done that until we had others in the can. It was good. They used it to get more episodes made. It took a while. Network things and whatever. We were like, ‘Maybe you shouldn’t have put it out until we had a schedule of more episodes.’ Now, we have more episodes. More than one episode. It feels nice. When they come out, I don’t know. Definitely before the end of the year. We shot them a couple weeks ago. I don’t want to get into what we ate and with who, but the next day Renee threw up three times.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
In a recent interview with the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Lio Rush gave his thoughts about his time away from AEW following his departure in February of 2022 and recent return to the company. Rush stated “I feel like I’ve had quite the interesting year. I started off the year by doing my own tour called the Where’s Home World Tour. I went everywhere, I was all throughout America, I went to Europe, Canada, and it was honestly a search for my home. I feel like I’ve been on the independent circuit for the last two or three years. I’ve wrestled in other companies throughout the time that I first signed with AEW. I don’t know, I was just trying to figure out where home was. Kind of the tail end of that tour, I got a random text at three in the morning [asking] if I could show up at AEW in LA. The casino gauntlet. So many things were going through my head, I was extremely excited. I knew that it was going to be an actual surprise, even though I did a surprise in the Casino Battle Royale before. I knew that this one was legitimately going to be a surprise surprise. Ever since that day, just a lot of hard work, just a lot of staying consistent with myself and staying consistent with AEW. So much time has passed, I’m in a much better place, I’m ready to work. I’m ready to be here, I’m ready to be all elite. I didn’t say that right off the bat, but all the work that I put in, I think that ultimately gave me the time and space to see if I did want AEW to be my home. I feel like if it went any other way other than how it went down at WrestleDream, it probably wouldn’t have been the right fit. Now that I’ve got a chance to be in the locker room, be at all the shows, be on Ring Of Honor, Collision, Rampage, Dynamite, be able to work with Tony, be able to work with the guys and girls in the locker room again, I feel like it showed me that yeah, this is the place I want to be.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
AEW reportedly drew an attendance of 2,286 for their Oct. 19th Collision and Battle of the Belts XII shows in Stockton, CA and 2,540 for their Oct. 23rd Dynamite show in Salt Lake City, UT, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
AEW reportedly has sold around 1,570 tickets for their Nov. 6th Dynamite show in Manchester, NH and 5,389 tickets for their Nov. 23rd Full Gear 2023 event in Newark, NJ as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

TNA, NJPW, Indies, & Misc. Wrestling

Sunday’s event for Glory Pro Wrestling in St. Louis, Missouri featured AEW talent Ricky Starks making a surprise appearance. During the show, Starks came out and laid out Kody “Koko” Lane with a Spear to set up a match between the two at Glory Pro’s upcoming event on November 24th. This was Starks’ first appearance in wrestling since this past March for AEW.
During Saturday’s Bound For Glory 2024 event in Detroit, Michigan, TNA Wrestling announced that this year’s event drew the highest attendance for a Bound For Glory event since 2013.
TNA also announced that Lucha Libre AAA talent El Hijo del Vikingo will be making an appearance on their October 31st Impact! show on AXS TV. In an interesting note, the graphic for Vikingo’s announcement listed him as the TNA X-Division Champion despite him failing to win the title from “Speedball” Mike Bailey at Saturday’s Bound For Glory 2024 event in Detroit, Michigan.
TNA also announced two new matches for this week’s Impact! show on October 31st. The first was a tag team match of FIR$T CLA$$ (KC Navarro & AJ Francis) vs. The Rascalz (Trey Miguel & Zachary Wentz). The second was a tag team match of Hammerstone & Jake Something vs. Sami Callihan & PCO.
TNA also announced that they will be holding a live Impact! show on Thursday, January 23, 2025 at the Boeing Center in San Antonio, Texas.
TNA Wrestling also announced that they have signed a partnership deal with BLCKSMTH Apparel to produce officially licensed TNA merchandise for sale soon.
Saturday’s Tenth Anniversary event for Over The Top Wrestling in Dublin, Ireland featured The Judgement Day’s Finn Balor & JD McDonagh defeating The Social Elite (Matthew Smyth & Sean Guinness) in a tag team match at the event.
Saturday’s OTT Tenth Anniversary event in Dublin also featured two championships changing hands. The first was Charlie Sterling defeating Adam Maxted, Damien Corvin, Goldenboy Santos, Grado, and Ilija Zarkov in a Gauntlet match to become the new OTT European Champion. The second was Raven Creed defeating Session Moth Martina in a Tables match to become the new OTT Women’s Champion.
Session Moth Martina announced earlier today on Twitter that she is currently hospitalized after suffering a “significant” head injury at OTT’s Tenth Anniversary event in Dublin. Martina stated “Unfortunately last night at @OTT_wrestling, not only did I lose the Championship,but I was sent to hospital after sustaining a significant head injury that’s put me out of action for a little bit! thank you for the last 10 years of my life, it’s time to say bye“
Game Changer Wrestling and indies wrestler Sawyer Wreck announced on Twitter that she will be retiring from wrestling this November. Wreck stated that her final match of her wrestling career will be taking place on November 16th. Wreck stated “My first and last notes app post of my wrestling career. I’ve been hesitant to say something because words are hard. But after November 16 l will be hanging my boots up. I’ll probably spend the next ten years trying to process the whole of things I’ve experienced during this era of my life lol but will forever be grateful for all the love shown and energy given to me by this community. So if you’re in Austin, Texas today (oct 27) or Orlando, Florida November 16 and want to watch me leave it all in the ring and probably be even more emotionally charged than usual here’s the opportunity. Forever violently yours, Sawyer wreck“
Pro Wrestling NOAH announced that Taishi Ozawa recently suffered a cuboid bone fracture in his left foot and will be out of action for the company for the foreseeable future.
Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling recently announced that Hyper Misao will be making her return from injury at their November 22nd event in Tokyo, Japan. Miaso has been out of action for TJPW since this past April due to right ankle fracture injury.
Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling reportedly drew an attendance of 825 for their Oct. 19th Forged In Excellence Night 1 event in Windsor and 750 for their Oct. 20th Forged In Excellence Night 2 event in Windsor, Canada, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre reportedly drew an attendance of around 9,000 for their Oct. 18th Super Viernes event at the Arena Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
New Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly drew a paid attendance of 1,544 for their Oct. 20th Royal Quest IV event in London, England and 633 for their Oct. 24th Super Junior Tag League 2024 event in Gunma, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
NJPW announced that Stardom talent Tam Nakano will be making an appearance for the company at their New Japan Road event on November 9th in Anjo, Japan.
Stardom reportedly drew a paid attendance of 236 for their Oct. 19th New Blood 16 event in Tokyo and 483 for their Oct. 20th event in Fuji, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Marigold reportedly drew a paid attendance of 866 for their Oct. 24th Fantastic Adventure event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Revolution Pro Wrestling reportedly drew an attendance of around 700 for their Oct. 19th Global Wars UK event in Doncaster, England, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
RevPro recently announced one new match for the card of their Uprising 2024 event on Dec. 21st in Bethnal Green. England. This new match is an Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship match of Michael Oku vs. Luke Jacobs (c).
NightSchool Films recently released the official trailer for their upcoming documentary film titled Nevermore: The Raven Effect. This upcoming film is based on ECW legend Raven.

Wrestling TV Ratings for Week of October 18 to October 24, 2024

WWE Friday Night SmackDown – 1,378,000 viewers, 0.42 rating (prior week – 1,652,000 viewers, 0.49 rating)
WWE RAW – 1,578,000 viewers, 0.51 rating (prior week – 1,538,000 viewers, 0.43 rating)
WWE NXT – 702,000 viewers, 0.16 rating (prior week – 639,000 viewers, 0.18 rating)
AEW Rampage – 234,000 viewers, 0.06 rating (prior week – 253,000 viewers, 0.09 rating)
AEW Collision – 346,000 viewers, 0.10 rating (prior week – N/A)
AEW Dynamite – 637,000 viewers, 0.19 rating (prior week – 633,000 viewers, 0.20 rating)
AEW Battle of the Belts XII – 304,000 viewers, 0.08 rating (prior week – N/A)
TNA Wrestling Impact! – N/A (prior week – N/A)

Total wrestling television viewership for the week: 5,179,000 viewers, up 464,000 viewers from the prior week’s 4,715,000 viewers.

AEW held their latest Battle of the Belts XII special on October 19th.

AEW did not hold an AEW Collsion show on October 12th due to their WrestleDream 2024 event taking place that night instead.

The viewership and ratings numbers for the October 17th and October 24th TNA Impact! shows are currently not known.